URGENT COVID-19 UPDATE:
If, IN MY OPINION, you are price-gouging on materials required for humans to mitigate the COVID-19 virus during this pandemic, I will ALWAYS resolve in favor of the buyer.
OpenBazaar Peer ID: QmeSyTRaNZMD8ajcfbhC8eYibWgnSZtSGUp3Vn59bCnPWC
- Summary
- General Policies
- The Arbitration Process
- Stuck funds and communication problems
- Moderator Timeliness
- Privacy and Legality
- Unethical Transactions
Moderators play a critical role in the OpenBazaar ecosystem in alleviating risk to both the buyer and seller. Not only do they facilitate the resolution of disputes, but they also allow funds to be transferred when a resolution between the two parties is not possible.
In choosing me as a moderator, you can be assured that any dispute will be resolved based on the terms of the contract. If the dispute lies outside of the agreed upon terms, the original terms of contract will be supplemented (but not replaced) by my own policies, which are summarized below.
| Scenario | Result |
|---|---|
| Buyer agrees to shipping with no tracking | It's not the vendor's fault if the package doesn't arrive. |
| Tracking status doesn't change for 10 days or the package is listed as lost | The buyer is refunded. |
| The vendor doesn't ship the item on time | The vendor has two days to prove shipment, or the buyer is refunded. |
| Cancellations and returns | The terms must be agreed upon in advance, not after the sale. |
| Damaged goods | The person who shipped the item is responsible. |
| Vendor ships the wrong item | The buyer is refunded and is not responsible for returning the incorrect item. |
| No contact in 3 days | Your position in the dispute is voided. |
| Privacy concerns | I will never divulge information to a third party. |
| Illegal transactions | NO ILLEGAL TRANSACTIONS. I will ignore the dispute. |
The buyer and vendor should agree in advance as to how the order will be delivered and tracked.
- If no tracking is used, the vendor will not be responsible if the item is never received.
- If tracking is used, but the tracking status does not change for 10 business days, or the package is listed as lost, the vendor will be responsible for refunding the buyer.
The terms for cancelling an order or returning an item (including shipping costs) should be agreed upon before sale. Lacking an agreement, all sales are final, and any return shipping costs will be at the expense of the buyer.
- All complaints concerning the quality of the item will be judged based on the vendor's return policy.
- If reasonable proof is provided that the vendor shipped the wrong item, funds will be returned to the buyer, and the buyer will not be responsible for returning the incorrectly shipped item.
- If the vendor does not ship the item 2 days following the maximum estimated time provided to the buyer, funds will be returned to the buyer after confirmation from the vendor that the item was not shipped.
The party who ships the item (whether the vendor or the buyer for a return) should assure proper packaging so that the item is not damaged during transport. Proper insurance should be acquired, and damaged goods will be considered the fault of the person shipping the item.
I will ask the buyer to send me a photo and detailed description of the recieved item to compare with the informaiton on the vendor's store. A decision will be made based on the price of the item and the description discrepancy.
Transactions that involve services or the delivery of digital goods should provide a means of verifying that the service or content was in fact rendered or delivered. All information required to prove contract fulfilment must be included within the transaction. If no such verification process was agreed upon, the vendor will not be responsible if there is a dispute.
Funds will be released only at the end of a thorough investigation. Both the buyer and vendor will be contacted twice, allowing ample opportunity to determine the details of the dispute.
A reasonable effort will be made towards finding a mutually agreed upon resolution. If no such resolution is possible, I will return funds based on my assessment of the facts. In most cases, as the result of a breach of contract, one party will be sided with and all funds will be returned to that party. When it is not possible to determine with certainty the factual basis of the dispute, the funds will be split between the two parties in proportion to my assessment of the likelihood of each party's case.
If the buyer fails to release funds 48 hours following delivery of the item, I will contact the buyer using all available forms of communication. If a response is not received within 3 additional days, funds will be released to the vendor.
If the buyer or vendor does not respond to the moderator within 3 days, their position in the dispute will be considered void. Most disputes should be resolved within a maximum of three days, but it is acknowledged that personal commitments may sometimes interfere with either the buyer or seller responding in a timely manner. If asked, and if provided a reasonable explanation, under rare circumstanes I will extend all deadlines by up to one week.
In this early stage of the network, it is common on OpenBazaar for vendors not to receive messages or payments. Sometimes opening a dispute is the only way to get the message across to the vendor, who may be unaware of the order until then. In these cases, both buyer and vendor must agree on one of two actions:
-
Refund the buyer 100% and they can try again to make the same order with the same vendor.
-
Funds remain in escrow while the vendor fulfills the order, provides tracking information, etc. Once tracking information indicates that the order was delivered, the buyer has a new 3-day window in which to keep the dispute open, otherwise it is assumed the delivery was complete and in good condition and the vendor will get 100% of the funds.
The buyer and seller should be aware that I might not reside in their time zone. I will strive to respond to all inquiries within 8 hours, but you should allow up to 12 hours to receive a response. In rare cases, such as when I am traveling internationally, it may take me 24 hours to respond.
The moderator will under no circumstance divuldge the private information in an OpenBazaar contract to a third party. If, for debugging reasons, it is necessary to contact the developers (or another form of support group) and provide technical details concerning the transaction, this will be done only with the consent of both the buyer and vendor.
For my own safety AND YOURS, I can not participate in any transactions that may considered illegal in the United States of America.
If I find a transaction to be unethical, I will take no action in the arbitration of the dispute. If you find this policy ambiguous, please contact me before choosing me as a moderator. Examples of unethical transactions include (but are not limited to): Child pornography, Identity theft, "Hacking" services.
If all users of OpenBazaar behave with best practices in mind, we can build a strong, reputable community. Therefore, vendors must not attempt to cheat inside the system or they risk defaulting their position in a dispute. Examples of dishonest vendor activity include (but are not limited to): Spoofed ratings or apparent Sybil (sock puppet) attacks, intentionally misleading item description, provable false information in store location or description. A vendor's entire store may be scrutinized in the event that a dispute otherwise reaches a stalemate.